A lot of the time, women would use protests to speak for themselves in the government, where they had no voice. They would fight for their political rights, much like the suffragettes we had in America. Protests in Rome, such as the Conflict of the Orders, sometimes had a huge lasting effect on the empire. In the Conflict of the Orders, the plebeians protested for equal rights against the patricians. The patricians held all the power, and they typically would change the laws constantly, and the plebeians didn't know what they were doing wrong. The plebeians were fed up with it, and they protested for equal rights. They left Rome and refused to pay taxes until their demands were met. It didn't take very long for the patricians to see how much they needed the plebeians to be a successful republic. They eventually gave in, and over a period of two hundred years the plebeians had gained their way to almost completely equal citizenship. Many protests in ancient Rome were on political issues, such as equal rights or against the emperors. There were protests on slavery, and slave labor in the republic, trying to get more jobs for the wealthier people. A large protest made by the Romans was a big part of their overthrowing the Etruscans and beginning the republic. At other times in Rome, the Jews revolted because they wanted to overthrow Roman rule. The Jews became very anti-Roman, and they refused to worship the emperor as a divine god. They were killed off for years for refusing to believe this, but they stayed true to their faith. Another time, the slaves rebelled against the wealthier people. These people protesting were prisoners that had been made slaves in the end of the second Punic War. They rebelled in a small revolt, though surely not the first slave rebellion. There were three major slave revolts, which were called the Servile wars, since the Latin word for "slave" is "servus." The first one was called the First (Sicillian) Slave Revolt, the second was called the Second (Sicillian) Slave Revolt, and the third was called the Revolt of Spartacus.
Protests in modern day are still very much related to political stances, although women don't have to fight for equal rights any more. Especially right now, security guards in Washington D.C. are concerned that their will be protests and violent actions taken at the presidential inauguration on January 21st. There are also protests happening in our country that are involving other countries, such as a large protest that broke out when Israeli troops broke into a West Bank apartment building in a failed arrest raid on the last Thursday of December, 2012. There are protests here that are against or for some very serious matters, such as child abuse, gun laws, and even animal testing rights. Sometimes protests involve going on strike, such as last year when the Chicago teachers went on strike, refusing to work. Protests today are still an issue, although not much action has recently been taken against it. They spark up all over everywhere, and they can be mild and small, to something so large that people are killed in the protests. Right now, in Egypt, protests are continuing after Barack Obama has warned them. Obama has said that "I don't think that we should consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy." In Egypt, they are protesting a crisis over a new constitution, becoming a democracy.
Email to professional:
Dear Mr. Andrews,
My name is Margaret and I'm a 7th grader at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am doing a research project on violent protests in ancient Rome, versus our world today. I would like to ask for your expertise on certain things I had questions about. I have done previous research, and there are things I haven't quite been able to find that I would like to ask you about. 1. Are people protesting violently against tax raises on the middle class? 2. Is political correctness becoming a big enough issue in our country to spark a protest, or some kind of strike? 3. Are state and local government doing anything to keep protests from happening in their areas? If so, do you know what they are doing? 4. How big of an issue is religion becoming? If you have any time to answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Margaret Lyon Other email to professional: Dear Mr. Alexander, My name is Margaret and I am a seventh grader at Nagel Middle School. I am doing a research project on protests that are happening now and were in the Roman Empire. I would like to ask your help with a few questions that are happening in the world today, if you have the time to read them. I have done previous research and now I am trying to find someone with your level of expertise. If you wouldn't mind e-mailing back, I would love to have some help. 1. What are people in the U.S. doing to prevent protests happening in other places involving our country? 2. Is there one specific topic that is causing many protests against it? 3. What are people doing anywhere to prevent small protests from growing violent? 4. Is religion something that is causing a lot of protests and controversy in society? Thank you very much for reading this letter, and I greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, Margaret Lyon Relpy from John Andrews:
In both countries the erosion of civic virtue weakened the republican form of government where free citizens actually chose their leaders and rule of law operated to restrain the impulse that might makes right. Rome degraded from a republic into imperial rule and ultimately fell to its enemies.
Americans still have it in our power to prevent that, but we have to rise up and do much better than we are at present. My generation (that of your grandparents) and my children's generation (that of your parents) have not done our part. It will be up to your generation to help save our beloved country - and an important first step is for you to get a good education through assignments like this one.
With that introduction, I answer your 4 questions as follows:
1- Taxes on the middle class are somewhat heavier, but not a lot heavier, because so much of what government now spends is paid for with borrowed money, not tax revenues. But there is a sense of alarm among the middle class even so, fearing the country will either go broke or reduce benefits on which so many people have come to depend.. Since 2009 this alarm has taken form in protest movements from the right (Tea Party) and the left (Occupy Wall Street), but with almost no violence.
2 - Political correctness is a severe and worsening obstacle to a) clear, honest learning and questioning in our schools and colleges, b) accurate reporting and analysis in our news media, c) freedom of expression in our political debates, and d) freedom of religion in the spiritual life of our people. But because it operates so subtly and gradually, and because it imposes a self-censoring climate against those trying to disagree with political correctness itself, there is now, and likely will not be, any significant protest activity opposing it. It's like a fatal disease in the body politic that few Americans even know we have.
3- The main reason protests in America today are almost never disruptive or violent is that our form of government - federal, state, and local - is generally so open to criticism and disagreement and so responsive to citizens' demand for change via peaceful mass movements, lobbying of public officials, and replacement of public officials via elections. But as noted under #2, political correctness - sometimes called "group think" - is one very dangerous drag on this overall climate of openness and responsiveness.
4- The religious convictions of many Americans - especially Christians and Jews - are a vital source of protection and renewal for our constitutional republican form of government and the democratic process. This is an advantage ancient Rome did not have as its civic virtue began to decline. But the threat to religious freedom from some people's desire to replace God with government - and from political correctness, which puts tolerance ahead of truth - is getting worse by the year. I don't see this leading to violence, but it could become horribly divisive as people of faith begin to feel more and more oppressed. This too is a difficult challenge your generation will face in the next 10-20 years, maybe sooner. I hope that you personally, Margaret, are being taught as you grow up that God is real, the only true source of authority and happiness in our lives, and that it's God, not government, from whom our rights of life, liberty, and property originate.
Thanks for the opportunity to send you these thoughts. I hope they are helpful. May God bless you with success in this school assignment and in your entire education as a young American.
Yours for self-government,
JOHN ANDREWS
Director, Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University
Former President, Colorado Senate www.Centennialccu.org 720.489.7700 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting720.489.7700 FREE end_of_the_skype_highlighting Animoto video http://animoto.com/play/Xz8sV2lvrN0CUi0InI9J9w
http://www.exovedate.com/ancient_timeline_one.html
http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson10.html
http://www.learntci.com/shared/sections/6650
A lot of the time, women would use protests to speak for themselves in the government, where they had no voice. They would fight for their political rights, much like the suffragettes we had in America. Protests in Rome, such as the Conflict of the Orders, sometimes had a huge lasting effect on the empire. In the Conflict of the Orders, the plebeians protested for equal rights against the patricians. The patricians held all the power, and they typically would change the laws constantly, and the plebeians didn't know what they were doing wrong. The plebeians were fed up with it, and they protested for equal rights. They left Rome and refused to pay taxes until their demands were met. It didn't take very long for the patricians to see how much they needed the plebeians to be a successful republic. They eventually gave in, and over a period of two hundred years the plebeians had gained their way to almost completely equal citizenship.
Many protests in ancient Rome were on political issues, such as equal rights or against the emperors.
There were protests on slavery, and slave labor in the republic, trying to get more jobs for the wealthier people. A large protest made by the Romans was a big part of their overthrowing the Etruscans and beginning the republic. At other times in Rome, the Jews revolted because they wanted to overthrow Roman rule. The Jews became very anti-Roman, and they refused to worship the emperor as a divine god. They were killed off for years for refusing to believe this, but they stayed true to their faith.
Another time, the slaves rebelled against the wealthier people. These people protesting were prisoners that had been made slaves in the end of the second Punic War. They rebelled in a small revolt, though surely not the first slave rebellion. There were three major slave revolts, which were called the Servile wars, since the Latin word for "slave" is "servus." The first one was called the First (Sicillian) Slave Revolt, the second was called the Second (Sicillian) Slave Revolt, and the third was called the Revolt of Spartacus.
Protests in modern day are still very much related to political stances, although women don't have to fight for equal rights any more. Especially right now, security guards in Washington D.C. are concerned that their will be protests and violent actions taken at the presidential inauguration on January 21st. There are also protests happening in our country that are involving other countries, such as a large protest that broke out when Israeli troops broke into a West Bank apartment building in a failed arrest raid on the last Thursday of December, 2012. There are protests here that are against or for some very serious matters, such as child abuse, gun laws, and even animal testing rights. Sometimes protests involve going on strike, such as last year when the Chicago teachers went on strike, refusing to work.
Protests today are still an issue, although not much action has recently been taken against it. They spark up all over everywhere, and they can be mild and small, to something so large that people are killed in the protests. Right now, in Egypt, protests are continuing after Barack Obama has warned them. Obama has said that "I don't think that we should consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy." In Egypt, they are protesting a crisis over a new constitution, becoming a democracy.
Email to professional:
Dear Mr. Andrews,
My name is Margaret and I'm a 7th grader at Nagel Middle School in Cincinnati, Ohio. I am doing a research project on violent protests in ancient Rome, versus our world today. I would like to ask for your expertise on certain things I had questions about. I have done previous research, and there are things I haven't quite been able to find that I would like to ask you about.
1. Are people protesting violently against tax raises on the middle class?
2. Is political correctness becoming a big enough issue in our country to spark a protest, or some kind of strike?
3. Are state and local government doing anything to keep protests from happening in their areas? If so, do you know what they are doing?
4. How big of an issue is religion becoming?
If you have any time to answer these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Margaret Lyon
Other email to professional:
Dear Mr. Alexander,
My name is Margaret and I am a seventh grader at Nagel Middle School. I am doing a research project on protests that are happening now and were in the Roman Empire. I would like to ask your help with a few questions that are happening in the world today, if you have the time to read them. I have done previous research and now I am trying to find someone with your level of expertise. If you wouldn't mind e-mailing back, I would love to have some help. 1. What are people in the U.S. doing to prevent protests happening in other places involving our country? 2. Is there one specific topic that is causing many protests against it? 3. What are people doing anywhere to prevent small protests from growing violent? 4. Is religion something that is causing a lot of protests and controversy in society? Thank you very much for reading this letter, and I greatly appreciate it. Sincerely, Margaret Lyon
Relpy from John Andrews:
In both countries the erosion of civic virtue weakened the republican form of government where free citizens actually chose their leaders and rule of law operated to restrain the impulse that might makes right. Rome degraded from a republic into imperial rule and ultimately fell to its enemies.
Americans still have it in our power to prevent that, but we have to rise up and do much better than we are at present. My generation (that of your grandparents) and my children's generation (that of your parents) have not done our part. It will be up to your generation to help save our beloved country - and an important first step is for you to get a good education through assignments like this one.
With that introduction, I answer your 4 questions as follows:
1- Taxes on the middle class are somewhat heavier, but not a lot heavier, because so much of what government now spends is paid for with borrowed money, not tax revenues. But there is a sense of alarm among the middle class even so, fearing the country will either go broke or reduce benefits on which so many people have come to depend.. Since 2009 this alarm has taken form in protest movements from the right (Tea Party) and the left (Occupy Wall Street), but with almost no violence.
2 - Political correctness is a severe and worsening obstacle to a) clear, honest learning and questioning in our schools and colleges, b) accurate reporting and analysis in our news media, c) freedom of expression in our political debates, and d) freedom of religion in the spiritual life of our people. But because it operates so subtly and gradually, and because it imposes a self-censoring climate against those trying to disagree with political correctness itself, there is now, and likely will not be, any significant protest activity opposing it. It's like a fatal disease in the body politic that few Americans even know we have.
3- The main reason protests in America today are almost never disruptive or violent is that our form of government - federal, state, and local - is generally so open to criticism and disagreement and so responsive to citizens' demand for change via peaceful mass movements, lobbying of public officials, and replacement of public officials via elections. But as noted under #2, political correctness - sometimes called "group think" - is one very dangerous drag on this overall climate of openness and responsiveness.
4- The religious convictions of many Americans - especially Christians and Jews - are a vital source of protection and renewal for our constitutional republican form of government and the democratic process. This is an advantage ancient Rome did not have as its civic virtue began to decline. But the threat to religious freedom from some people's desire to replace God with government - and from political correctness, which puts tolerance ahead of truth - is getting worse by the year. I don't see this leading to violence, but it could become horribly divisive as people of faith begin to feel more and more oppressed. This too is a difficult challenge your generation will face in the next 10-20 years, maybe sooner. I hope that you personally, Margaret, are being taught as you grow up that God is real, the only true source of authority and happiness in our lives, and that it's God, not government, from whom our rights of life, liberty, and property originate.
Thanks for the opportunity to send you these thoughts. I hope they are helpful. May God bless you with success in this school assignment and in your entire education as a young American.
Yours for self-government,
JOHN ANDREWS
Director, Centennial Institute at Colorado Christian University
Former President, Colorado Senate
www.Centennialccu.org
720.489.7700 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting
Animoto video
http://animoto.com/play/Xz8sV2lvrN0CUi0InI9J9w
Powerpoint